Global warming and the associated glacier retreat recently revealed the entrance to an ice-rock tunnel, at an altitude of similar to 3600 m a.s.l., in the uppermost portion of the Forni Glacier in the Central Italian Alps. The tunnel served as an entrance to an Austro-Hungarian cableway station excavated in the rocks during the Great War just behind the frontline. A comprehensive geophysical survey, based on seismic and ground-penetrating radar profiling, was then undertaken to map other possible World War I (WWI) remains still embedded in the ice. The ice-rock interface was reconstructed over the entire saddle and in the uppermost portion of the glacier. A prominent linear reflector was surprisingly similar to the common response of buried pipes. The reflector orientation, almost longitudinal to the slope, does not seem to be compatible with a glacial conduit or with other natural features. Numerical simulations of a series of possible targets constrained interpretation to a partly water-filled rounded shape cavity. The presence of a preserved WWI tunnel connecting Mount Vioz and Punta Linke could be considered a realistic hypothesis. The Forni glacier could be still considered polythermal and comprised of cold ice without basal sliding in its top portion.
Geophysical signature of a World War i tunnel-like anomaly in the Forni Glacier (Punta Linke, Italian Alps) / Francese, R; Bondesan, A.; Giorgi, M.; Picotti, S.; Carcione, J.; Salvatore, M. C.; Nicolis, F.; Baroni, C.. - In: JOURNAL OF GLACIOLOGY. - ISSN 0022-1430. - 65:253(2019), pp. 798-812. [10.1017/jog.2019.59]
Geophysical signature of a World War i tunnel-like anomaly in the Forni Glacier (Punta Linke, Italian Alps)
Francese R;
2019-01-01
Abstract
Global warming and the associated glacier retreat recently revealed the entrance to an ice-rock tunnel, at an altitude of similar to 3600 m a.s.l., in the uppermost portion of the Forni Glacier in the Central Italian Alps. The tunnel served as an entrance to an Austro-Hungarian cableway station excavated in the rocks during the Great War just behind the frontline. A comprehensive geophysical survey, based on seismic and ground-penetrating radar profiling, was then undertaken to map other possible World War I (WWI) remains still embedded in the ice. The ice-rock interface was reconstructed over the entire saddle and in the uppermost portion of the glacier. A prominent linear reflector was surprisingly similar to the common response of buried pipes. The reflector orientation, almost longitudinal to the slope, does not seem to be compatible with a glacial conduit or with other natural features. Numerical simulations of a series of possible targets constrained interpretation to a partly water-filled rounded shape cavity. The presence of a preserved WWI tunnel connecting Mount Vioz and Punta Linke could be considered a realistic hypothesis. The Forni glacier could be still considered polythermal and comprised of cold ice without basal sliding in its top portion.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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